Town Square

Plan Bay Area: boon or bane?

Original post made
on Apr 25, 2013

Plan Bay Area is either a plan bring all nine counties of the Bay Area into compliance with state law or a United Nations plot -- depending on who one asks. A hearing Monday night in Walnut Creek brought out nearly 200 people who came to speak out against the plan or to support it, with those opposed outnumbering those in favor by better than three to one.

Posted by Concerned Citizen
a resident of Danville
on Apr 25, 2013 at 9:53 am

Wow!.... Glenn, this is by far one of the most bias articles I've seen posted by the Danville Express. How can you make the following comment?!

"Ironically, some of those at the meeting, with an average age that was probably over 65, may need to use the housing they oppose."

I would argue that most of the people at this meeting would NOT use these government services and do not favor so much government intervention into our daily lives. The very fact that, as you say, "A hearing Monday night in Walnut Creek drew nearly 200 people who came to speak out against the draft plan or to support it, with those opposed outnumbering those in favor by more than three to one" illustrates just that point.

Obviously, the government and our elected officials are taking too many liberties and are no longer representing the people (us). The folks who came to this meeting in dissent felt strongly enough to arrive make that statement in person.

Please do the community a service and keep your own personal bias and rhetoric to yourself. Journalists should represent the facts without reflecting their own personal messages within their writing.

Posted by O. Striche
a resident of Danville
on Apr 27, 2013 at 6:41 am

Yeah! I mean, why would we choose to collaborate with neighboring communities on any of these problems?? It's not like we breathe the same air, or drink the same water, or travel the same roads as they do -- everybody knows that those things are ours alone.

It's bad enough that Those People borrow our air when we allow them access to our lawns and laundries. And even if some of us earn our livings outside The Bubble, we always come right home, except when the freeways are clogged -- at least most of our vehicle exhaust ends up elsewhere.

Posted by William Stone
a resident of Danville
on Apr 28, 2013 at 8:09 am

A blatantly biased article. The comment about the over 65 group was quite revealing. With Obamacare (obamaKILL?) on the horizon, the plan is to merely "deny" services to that group when needed. They die. Problem solved. Anyone following Congress's current stealth attempt to exempt themselves from it? Google it.

Posted by Conservator
a resident of Danville
on Apr 28, 2013 at 9:52 am

@Stone,

I truly hope you're paid to write a storyline that in response jumps from a 'land-use' plan (right or wrong, loved or hated) for the Bay Area to a slant on 'Obamacare'. If the main article indicated that extraterrestrial alien invasion forces where observed to be headed our direction, should we expect that either yourself or one of your minions would find the 'courage' to spin-it that it must be attributable to their desire to enroll in our Federal healthcare plan?

Posted by for local government
a resident of Danville
on Apr 30, 2013 at 8:35 am

@O. Striche: Apparently, you are the one sticking your head in the ground to hide from reality. If you had attended the January Town Hall meeting at the Veteran's Hall in Danville, you would have heard Marin County environmentalist Bob Silvestri explain why so-called "stack and pack" housing is not environmentally friendly. And if you think about it a little bit, you will realize that Danville is not a "transit hub", and has few jobs. Adding more houses here, particularly high density, would mean adding many more car-driving commuters spewing pollutants into our air.

And realize, O.S., that cooperating does not mean cow-towing. ABAG is asking Danville to do things that are clearly not in its self-interest to do. In fact, ABAG's longterm goal is to eliminate city governments like Danville's. Those pesky Councils actually sometimes try to follow the directives of their residents and oppose ABAG plans---what an outrage!

Anyone with a modicum of knowledge is aware that ABAG and Plan Bay Area has a political slant. Just read their goals and watch what they do and say. That slant is to the left since the majority of the members of these groups are advocates of taking land and designating it for higher density (Danville is doing this - take a look at Kaufmann/Broad new housing project off of San Ramon Valley Blvd),and increasing low income housing (KB project will have low income apartments). Those that don't pay taxes, of course are supportive, because they benefit the most. With the one of highest number of welfare recipients in the country, we should be able to see where California is headed. The increase in population is primarily from immigration and that does not equate to business growth or higher tax revenues, it is a strain on a already faltering economy. (Read about Gov. Brown's proposal of "weighted funding" - giving more revenues to poorer school districts and cutting back on what the state feels are wealthier districts. Just another example of redistribution.)

Posted by C. R. Mudgeon
a resident of Danville
on Apr 30, 2013 at 10:11 am

There is certainly merit in neighboring towns cooperating on matters of mutual interest, whether it pertains to zoning, traffic management, etc. One of the problems with ABAG is that it is trying to mold very different areas and environments into a one-size-fits-all set of views.

As someone noted above, Danville isn't, and probably never will be, any sort of transit center. Basically because it's roughly halfway between the two most logical areas for transit centers: Walnut Creek and Dublin. Both are at major junctions of freeways, and are directly served by BART. So while it makes some sort of sense to have denser/clustered housing near to these existing transit centers, it doesn't make much sense to do this 20-30 minutes away from the nearest mass transit location. Which is why market dynamics have resulted in apartments being more plentiful in Walnut Creek and Dublin. (Gee, imagine that!)

This has little to do with "elitism" - it is primarily a matter of lifestyle choices. If you want to have good commuting access to public transportation, and by extension, more amenities close by (such as restaurants, shopping, etc.) you will be drawn to Walnut Creek (and also Dublin, to some extent). If you don't want this, then you will be more drawn to Danville, San Ramon, etc. In both cases, the decisions are driven by individual priorities.